Grain Free Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake

I wasn’t planning to go all pumpkin crazy like all the food blogs are starting to do and I probably still won’t have like 30 days of all pumpkin posts or something like that, but I was actually just walking by the pantry one day recently and right there staring at me was a can of pumpkin.  It was a sign.  I needed to make something with it. 

After searching for just the thing I was craving, I found this cake.  It was everything I was looking for and craving.  It’s got those fall spices we all love and has healthy pumpkin in it, not to mention almond butter and raw honey to sweeten it.  Can hardly believe making a cake with no flour turned out so well.  You really wouldn’t know there is no flour.  It would be fun to have someone try it who didn’t know and see if they could tell what was different.  I’ve made a couple other things that are completely grain free, like brownies and they are really good.

I take no credit for the cake.  I found this at Mel’s blog, The Clothes Make the Girl.  Haven’t seen or heard of this blog before, but I love discovering new ones and will be back.  I didn’t change a whole lot of Mel’s recipe, but will retype it with my changes.  She also frosted her cake with a maple-vanilla frosting that is made with coconut butter.  This cake doesn’t even really need anything, it’s a great snack cake.  I certainly played around with toppings though.  Melted chocolate is my favorite way to top a slice of this cake.  I just love chocolate with fall spices like cinnamon and ginger.  I also topped some with some whipped coconut cream and while that’s good, too, I prefer the chocolate.  (Go figure.) ;)  Stock up on almonds and make your own almond butter, it’s much cheaper than buying almond butter.  Mel used Justin’s Maple Almond Butter and suggested if you didn’t use that to add some maple syrup, so that is what I did.  I’m tempted when I make this cake again to use maple syrup for the sweetener instead of honey to really bump up the maple flavor.

Grain Free Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Mel at The Clothes Make the Girl

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup almond butter

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1/4 cup raw honey

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Topping (optional):

1-2 ounces Enjoy life mini chocolate chips, melted

coconut cream, whipped  (or heavy whipping cream)

maple syrup or honey to drizzle over slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8 inch square baking pan with nonstick foil (foil is optional), coat the bottom and sides with a light coating of coconut oil. In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, almond butter, maple syrup, honey and eggs and whisk together.  In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom and lemon zest.  Add to the wet ingredients and stir to combine.  Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 30 minutes.

When the cake is cooled, remove from the pan by lifting the foil edges.  Cut into desired sized pieces.  Drizzle with melted chocolate or top with whipped coconut cream (or heavy whipping cream).  A drizzle of maple syrup or honey is great on the whipped cream.

 You could also put all the toppings on the cake to really kick it up! ;)  I still like the melted chocolate the best though.  Heck, it’s a great snack cake with no toppings as well.  Try it.

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I’ve wanted to make this cake for a while now and with the it being autumn and perfect timing, I also realized it was perfect timing because I got the recipe for this (and the pleasure of first tasting it) from Paige and today is her birthday!  Happy Birthday, Paige!  She is the chef I took classes from in Kansas before we moved.  I’ve said it before, but how I miss her/her classes.  Every couple weeks I got to watch her cook and teach and then eat the things she made for the class.  Could anything be better?  And with every class, we were provided with the recipes.  I have a big 3-ring binder full of Paige’s recipes and I use many of the recipes often.  I don’t have to be the only one (well, me and all the others who took/take her classes) to have her expertise and recipes in my arsenal—she has a wonderful blog!  If you haven’t seen it—go!--For Love of the Table.  If you stop by today, wish her a happy birthday! ;)

One of the pleasures of her classes was every couple of months, she’d have a special date night class that was a full three course meal and was only allowed about eight couples.  I “dragged” Kevin to one of those classes and he liked it so much that during the time we were still in Kansas, I don’t think we ever missed one after that.  One of the date night meal classes we took had this cake for dessert and I loved it.  Not to mention, Kevin, who doesn’t really care for cake and really doesn’t like frosting, actually really liked the cake, too.

I ended up deciding to make this cake for Kevin’s birthday celebration we recently had with some of his family.  He still got his usual, traditional cheesecake, but I also made this cake and a few other things as well, like the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies I posted a few days ago. 

This cake is perfectly spiced and instead of having chunks of apples, has applesauce which makes for a great moist cake.  The maple cream cheese frosting—well, pardon the pun, IS the icing on the cake.  You’ll want this cake/recipe in your box.  I even think you might want to make it—today.

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, by Paige Vandegrift

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1  1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1  1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 10-inch round cake pan, line with a round of parchment paper and grease the parchment.  Flour the pan!  Set aside.  Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides.  This will take 2 to 3 minutes at medium-high speed.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition.  Increase the speed to medium-high and briefly beat until the mixture lightens in color and expands in volume.  By hand, fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the applesauce (add the vanilla with the first half of the applesauce), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean—about 40 to 45 minutes.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.  Loosen the sides of the cake by running a thin knife around the edge of the pan.  Turn the cake out of the pan.  Cool the cake on a wire rack.  Frost with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.

Frosting:

4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar (4  1/2 ounces)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy—about 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the cream cheese and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds.  Scrape down the sides, drizzle in the maple syrup and beat until smooth, about 15 seconds.  (Paige has adapted a recipe from Maria Helm Sinskey’s The Vintage Kitchen)

Oh, and because it’s also another friend/neighbor’s birthday today, too, I made one and a half times the recipe and baked one 9 inch cake and two 6 inch cakes.  Then I weighed all the batter and put half of it in the nine inch pan and a quarter of it in each of the two 6 inch pans.  I stacked the two small cakes and have a great apple spice layer cake to deliver to my friend today!  Happy Birthday, Jackie!

And again, Happy Birthday, Paige!  (Thanks for having such a great impact on my culinary life, your wonderful classes, sharing your recipes and for being my friend!)

TWD—A Tragic Story About Maple Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

They look good, don’t they.  Well, this is the sad story with a tragic ending to six poor little, short-lived Maple Cornmeal Drop Biscuits that are this week’s pick for Tuesdays With Dorie, chosen by Lindsay of A Little Something....Sweet!

I made half a recipe which made seven lovely, perfect cornmeal biscuits with a hint of sweetness from the maple.   They were super simple to make with everyday cornbread/biscuit ingredients.  The only thing I used different from the recipe is I used 2% milk instead of whole milk. 

After the biscuits baked and cooled just slightly, I prepared one for its photo shoot and some tasting. 

  

Ooh, looking good.  Work it baby, work it. ( The photo shoot was going splendidly.)

Oh yeah, show us what you’re made of, Biscuit.  Nice.  A little sweetness and you’re done with a drizzle of maple syrup.

It was a great photo shoot.  And the biscuit tasted great, too.

I tucked the other six away in an airtight container so they could be eaten that evening for dinner with some chili I made.  Minutes before we sat down to eat, I threw them on a baking sheet in a hot oven to warm them again as Dorie suggested in the recipe.  We ate chili and whatever other things I’d prepared for dinner.  Finished, cleaned up and dinner was a done deal.

Then it just all the sudden hit me—the biscuits were still in the  warm oven (that had been turned off, but was still quite warm)!!  I pulled the brown hockey pucks out of the oven.  Unless anyone likes eating rocks, these were destined to their permanent home in the trash.  sigh  Well, pooh.

I am sure worse things have happened and I am glad I at least got to taste the one lucky one and it was good.  So that’s it.  Tragic, I know. ;)

I’m sure there were a lot more successful biscuit stories out there in TWD Land.

________________________________________________

Some cute pictures will make up for it.  On Saturday, Sam decided to make “tickets” for us to be invited to a picmik he was planning.  Taylor, Parker and I all were invited.  Taylor got in on the food planning and he and Sam did it all themselves.   They even made peanut butter sandwiches and picked out all the crackers and things to go with it and there we were at 10 a.m. on Saturday having our picmik lunch outside.  It was a beautiful day and we had just “hiked” up to the water tower near our house.  It could not have been more cute to hear Sam keep saying picmik over and over. 

You can see the water tower with the white top in the distance there.  I have hiked up to it many times and Parker and Scott have, too.  But for the first time, Taylor and Sam went with me, as well as Parker (Kevin was on a Boy Scout camp out with Scott).  The little guys did just fine and it was some great little exercise for the day.  Sam was so proud to have made it up to the tower. 

That night, we roasted marshmallows at the kitchen stove and made s’mores.  It was a big mess, but the boys loved it.

The s’mores were so messy that they thought it was fun to make what they were calling s’mores salad on their plates and eating it with a fork.  Whatever works, huh!

Okay, that’s all.

TWD—Translucent Maple Tuiles with Homemade Pumpkin Maple Ice Cream

TWD this week turned in to tuiles = failure.  I made a half recipe of “dough” (butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and a little flour).  I read on the TWD site to hold back a little on the butter amount.  Which I did.  I chilled the dough for 24 hours.  I made small dough balls and only put nine on the first baking sheet and got this---baked for 7 minutes as the recipe says.

 

That is one big tuile!  I waited a minute like the recipe says and tried to scrap off pieces of “the cookie”.  Yeah, it didn’t work very well.  I wasn’t too upset because our fearless host this week, Clivia from Bubie's Little Baker suggested that if they didn’t turn out just right that they still make tasty little morsels.  And she is right.  Here’s my lovely, very buttery (like it was dripping on to the counter) cookies on the cooling rack.

My next sheet pan I only put six balls of dough on it and got this---maybe my balls of dough were too  big?  They were about the size of hazelnuts--

I persevered and decided to make ice cream to put tuile crumbles on top!  I decided to be creative to make up for my tuile failure.

 

I just kind of threw together what I had and thought would make a decent pumpkin ice cream and this stuff is pretty darn good!  (Yes, that does kind of look like bacon on top.)

 

Pumpkin Maple Ice Cream, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

9 ounces pumpkin puree

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

good pinch of cloves

scant 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

pinch salt

2 cups half and half  (you could use cream)

Combine pumpkin, sugar, maple syrup, spices and salt in a bowl and whisk together.  Add half and half and whisk until combined.  Chill for at least 30 minutes.  Pour into bowl of ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Put the ice cream in a plastic container with a lid and freeze for at least 2 hours.  Serve with maple tuile crumbles for a perfect added crunch!

Clivia was right, even if it’s just crumbs or bits and pieces, these are tasty little bites of crunchy maple sugar goodness.  You can get the recipe on her blog and doggonit, look at her beautiful, perfect tuiles!  I think there is just too much butter in the batter, as I was rolling them in to balls, it felt like I was just rolling some sweetened butter.  The good that has come out of it is I now have a really yummy pumpkin ice cream to enjoy!

Hey, just a reminder about the giveaway I’m having for $75 gift code to CSN Stores.  You can enter three different ways and the giveaway is open until Friday, December 10 at midnight.  Just in time for the holidays!